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The first large-scale use of Insulin
Potentiation Therapy (IPT) could be in developing regions.
These people do not have a lot to lose. For many or most people in
these countries, life is hard, resources are scarce, and western medicine tends
to be scarce and too expensive. And these are the places where the
most serious infectious diseases are found, often out of control.
Regulation of medical practices, so strict in developed countries, must
surrender in many cases to practicality. People are suffering and
dying. If something works, and if they can afford it, people are willing
to try it.
| Think of Africa, where, in several of the countries, HIV
is rampant and AIDS is decimating the population. 70 percent of
the world's people with HIV live in Sub-Saharan Africa. 13
million Africans have died from AIDS, 90 percent of the world total.
People with AIDS are too weak to grow crops. When they die, they leave
orphans (many with HIV), now numbering 11 million, . HIV-positive
people are shunned as though they were pariahs. Treatment with western
drugs is far beyond the financial means of all but the elite. Health
ministers are trying to educate people about condoms, and they have little
hope except for vaccines they hope will come. AIDS is rampant in parts
of southeast Asia, as well
Perhaps IPT can offer hope to Africa, and Asia, if not to cure AIDS, at
least to treat it simply and inexpensively. See the IPTQ
page about HIV/AIDS and read the AIDS-related
Articles. Even if symptoms can be suppressed in patients for a few years, it
will buy precious time for many people, as vaccine and other
treatment research continues.
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| Think of malaria, for which there is no vaccine.
Treatment is expensive, often unaffordable, and malaria parasites continue
to become resistant to one drug after another.
We have one report, in a Time Magazine
article from 1947, of IPT being used by Dr. Perez Garcia 1 for treating a few
stubborn cases of malaria. "A malaria patient had no more fever"
after his first treatment. Based on IPT's superb track record with
treating serious infectious diseases, it would be worthwhile to
take another look at its use for malaria. A few simple experiments
could show if this possibility is worth pursuing.
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| Think of tuberculosis, under control in developed countries
for decades, but starting to come back, and out of control in financially
troubled countries, notably Russia... Again, treatment is costly, and
it takes a long time.
We do not know if IPT was ever tried for treating tuberculosis by
Dr. Perez Garcia 1 or Dr. Perez Garcia y Bellon 2. But again, based on IPT's track record with other chronic
and infectious diseases, and with other lung diseases, it is worth a
try. Our prediction is that IPT will speed up treatment for
tuberculosis and reduce the dose of drugs required. Even though IPT is
more complex than just taking pills, this might serve
to reduce the cost of treatment, and increase the likelihood that
patients will follow the entire (shorter) course of medication.
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| Think of all the other diseases that plague the developing regions. Sleeping sickness. Meningitis. Cholera. Lassa fever.
Yellow fever. We can hope that, based on its success in treating
other infectious diseases, properly applied IPT will succeed with these as
well.
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| Think of all the diseases that we also have in the
wealthy countries. For example, China has a terrible problem with lung
cancer and other respiratory diseases, due to air pollution and tobacco
smoke. In its few doctor-years of application, IPT has a reportedly
great track record for these conditions. No high tech cancer treatment
is available to most of the poor people of the world. IPT
could be an affordable solution for them. And there are many other possible
applications.
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The IPT method can be modified for use in developing regions. An
inexpensive butterfly needle (a needle and valve held to the arm with a
butterfly-shaped bandage) inserted into a vein can replace the expensive
intravenous bag and tubing. Glass syringes can be sterilized and
reused. Where needed, a simpler low-tech protocol could be tried -- intramuscular injection of insulin, followed by oral medication, and finally
drinking of sugar-rich liquids at the therapeutic moment. This is how Dr. Perez Garcia 1
did IPT in the beginning.
Resources are being directed towards these health problems of the developing
regions. And time is of the essence.
US Vice President Al Gore recently pledged $150 million to the United Nations
for fighting AIDS. A small portion of this could be applied to a pilot IPT
program which, if it works, could attract even more funds.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which "is dedicated to improving people's lives by sharing advances in health and learning with the global
community", recently gave $750 million to a 5-year program to help make
vaccines available to children in developing regions, and to help develop
vaccines for AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis. A grant much smaller than this
could fund major clinical studies in the developing regions for IPT treatment of all of
these diseases. [Unfortunately, this foundation has turned
our request down.]
Doctors without Borders (Médecins sans
Frontières), awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, should know exactly
what to do
with IPT. Unfortunately, they have not responded to several emails.
The World Health Organization also rejected
our appeal for them to investigate IPT for use in the developing
world, on the basis that there has not yet been a lot of scientific work
on IPT. (Catch 22 again. It seems like these people want
guarantees before they try something. Unfortunately, there are no
drug companies interested in funding the studies that the WHO is looking
for. A philanthropist is needed...)
As Dr. Paquette wrote in his book, Medicine of
Hope,
"If no one tries this treatment, when will we know whether
or not it is good?"
Diseases in the developing regions may seem distant and irrelevant and unbelievable
to many of us in the developed countries, those of us rich enough to afford cars
and computers and Internet access. But these people are real just like us,
they are part of our world, they are much closer than we think. And,
whether we realize it or not, their suffering impoverishes us.
And, if that is not enough, their diseases also endanger us, as they are only a
short airline flight away. It will not take a lot of resources to try IPT
in the developing regions. The IPT doctors can
provide training and consultation. Better to do this now than later.
If you know anyone in the
developing world, especially a doctor or government official, please let them
know about IPT and this website. If they have Internet service, you can send
them a free email about IPTQ.
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